The unseasonably warm weather the Montreal area has experienced spelled bad news for area skiers, many of whom are looking for some holiday time on the slopes.
Mont St-Bruno, for instance, closed Friday and Saturday as warm temperatures coupled with heavy rain to melt the snow on the hill, then turn it into ice when temperatures dipped below freezing.
“It was a really fast start,” said Michel Couture, the president of Ski St-Bruno. He referred to early winter weather that brought heavy snow in November — weather that allowed the hill to open about a month early.
That early start also meant that the hill already has largely offset the losses of around $100,000 incurred on Friday and Saturday.
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Ski slopes like St-Bruno routinely budget for varying weather, but more often than not in Quebec, ski hills close due to intense cold, not the opposite, Couture said.
Despite the fact that the ski hill warned skiers it would be closed Friday and Saturday, some visitors still made the 30-minute trek from Montreal, only to turn away disappointed. One visitor from Korea, Thomas Kang, laughed, looked up at the sky and simply said, “Aw, come on.”
Couture said the hill will be up and running again on Sunday.
“We’re going to put the hill up and running so we have really good ski conditions for tomorrow,” Couture said.